> If I'm an outlier, it won't have any effect.

How many people does it take to flag a post to the point where it doesnt show up anymore?

It depends on how many upvotes there also are.

so then it follows that for a fresh story it only takes a couple of people flagging...

that means two or three people spawn-camping the new queue can control what stories will or will not get through

I would assume there are counter measures and detection. I strongly remember people discussing up-voting rings/puppet groups that pushed stories on slashdot and reddit, and the counter measures used to prevent that.

I don't recall if dang has ever openly discussed such security measures, through I do recall him saying that people can loose access to flag/voting if they are misused.